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The following invention relates to a collapsible and selectively assembleable and dissassembleable grilling device for preparing food.
Outdoor barbecue grills are commonly used by outdoorsmen, including hunters, fishermen and campers, to cook and prepare food. Barbecue grills are also commonly used in the home during warm weather months. Such grills exist in all sizes and shapes from small portable grilling devices to large commercial scale grills used by catering services and the like. There are two problems that have long been associated with outdoor barbecue grills. The first of these is that the barbecue grill is a large, bulky metal structure which takes up considerable space. While space is not a significant problem for home or backyard barbecue grills, it may become a significant problem for hunters, campers and fishermen who must move from place to place and who must pack cooking utensils and devices into small areas. The problem can be the same for catering services whose grills are massive and require large trucks for transport.
A second problem with such devices is that, through use and over time, barbecue grills become exceedingly greasy and dirty. There is no simple and adequate way to clean a barbecue grill. Even small grills are too large to be cleaned in a conventional kitchen sink. Moreover, because of the shape of the grill, any type of cleaning is awkward at best and is not easily accomplished.
A grilling device for preparing food comprises a set of selectively detachable substantially flat plate members which include a pair of sidewall members, a pair of interior baffle members and a top plate member. A connecting member is slidably disposed within apertures formed oppositely in the pair of sidewall members and has retaining members situated at each end of the connecting member which thereby holds the set of plate members operatively together to form a free-standing outdoor barbecue grill.
The grill has a single set of connectors which dispenses with the need for small attaching parts such as nuts, bolts and screws and relies instead upon a single, large nut which acts as a retaining member interacting with two plate members to hold the assembly together. The barbecue grill is thus easily assembled and disassembled and the pieces that make up the assembly are substantially flat and may fit into a conventional dishwasher for cleaning.